Days before her execution, Christa Pike made a request that was as unusual as it was forceful: she did not want to receive lethal injection and asked to be executed by hanging. She also requested that the team responsible for her final moments be made up exclusively of women. 😳
Pike, now 50, was convicted of the murder of Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old classmate whom she attacked alongside her then-boyfriend in 1995, when Pike was just 18. Slemmer was beaten and stabbed to death, and Pike has spent nearly 30 years on death row. ⚖️
The execution was scheduled for this September 30, but a federal court stayed it just an hour beforehand. While her lawyers argue that her history of abuse and trauma was not adequately considered, her case is now continuing in court. 🚨